Policemen among 25 or more killed around Mexico

More than 25 were reported shot or found dead in Mexico over 19-21 February, including a child and several policemen, in killings likely related to crime and drugs, while authorities were looking for four policemen missing in the western state of Jalisco. On 20 February the review Proceso reported the shooting deaths of five in the northern city of Monterrey. In the western state of Guerrero that day, armed residents or the self-styled community police shot dead a suspected criminal and arrested another in the district of Tecoanapa; this may have been the first time the militia shot a criminal since these were formed in January. The residents confiscated four shotguns and burned crops in a small marijuana field the suspects were presumably guarding, Proceso reported. The review counted 18 people killed around the country that day although it was not immediately clear if this included the five reported shot dead in Monterrey; the 18 did include a family of four including an 11-year-old, gunned down in Monterrey after leaving the funeral of a friend or relative who had also been shot. Other victims of the day were two brothers and US nationals found dead in an abandoned petrol station the north-western district of Mexicali, tied with tape and apparently beaten and shot, Proceso reported. On 21 February two policemen were found shot dead in their car in the district of Chimalhuacán outside Mexico City; while four policemen of the district of Jilotlán de los Dolores in Jalisco were reported missing on 20 or 21 February. They were called to investigate a body said found in a nearby spot called El Terrero, but were missing when state investigators later arrived there, Proceso reported. Authorities were looking for them. Also on 21 February: two peasants were ambushed and shot in the countryside outside Atlixtac in Guerrero, while five policemen were shot or found dead in diferent incidents in Gómez Palacio and Lerdo in the northern state of Durango, Milenio reported. The Defence Ministry separately confirmed the deaths of two pilots in a plane crash in Estado de México, north of the capital on 21 Feburary; authorities were investigating its causes, Milenio reported.

Crime kills 40, officials said kidnapped in Mexico

About 40 were killed or found dead through 15-18 February across Mexico in shootouts or suspected executions by gangsters; one shooting death occurred unusually at midday in a Mexico City district frequented by tourists. A man was shot in that incident on 15 February as he left a bookshop in the Zona Rosa, a district of bars, eateries and offices popular with youth and tourists, Proceso reported. He was one of at least 16 the review reported as killed or found dead around Mexico on 14-15 February. These also included two whose bones were unearthed outside Acapulco in the west-coast state of Guerrero and two decapitated corpses found late that day, hanging from a bridge in the north-western state of Sinaloa. Proceso counted seven suspected crime victims in the states of Jalisco and Estado de México on 16 February. On 17 February a student was found shot dead in the western district of Chilpancingo. Three students were reported injured in Cuernavaca on the night of 16-17 as a gang of 15 broke in a robbed a student house party. Proceso counted 15 or more suspected victims of crime found on 17-18 February. These included a federal prosecutor and a man identified as his brother, found shot dead at the back of a car in the district of Ciénaga de Flores north of Monterrey. Another brother - the police chief of the district of Nuevo Laredo - was apparently missing on 18 February, Proceso reported. On 19 February, a senior detective from the northern state of Nuevo León was shot dead in the district of Apodaca, Excelsior reported. Two municipal officials and a former state official were also suspected to have been kidnapped in western and central Mexico. The mayor of Huitzuco de los Figueroa in Guerrero, his municipal finance officer and their driver were missing as of late 17 February and may have been kidnapped while driving betweeen Huitzuco and nearby Iguala, Milenio reported on 19 February. The former finance chief of the state of Morelos, Alfredo Jaime de la Torre, was in turn thought kidnapped on 18 February at his office in the district of Temixco, Proceso reported.

Over 20 reported killed, found dead in Mexico

The review Proceso put the death toll from presumed criminal incidents in Mexico from late 28 January through 29 January at 16; the dead included suspected criminals, policemen, unidentified civilians and an 11-year-old girl, earlier reported as kidnapped and found dead in the district of Tecomán in the western state of Colima. Five others were found in ditches or makeshift graves that day in the north-central state of Zacatecas, in the districts of Noria de Ángeles and Sombrerete, Proceso reported on 29 January. The number excluded the group of musicians kidnapped early on 25 January in the northern state of Nuevo León and whose bodies were found days later on an estate. Seventeen members of Kombo Kolombia were now believed to have been massacred, while police were interrogating one survivor to find out about the conditions and motives of the killings, Proceso reported. Separately authorities arrested on 29 January 24 people including 14 foreign nationals, described as forming an extortion and kidnapping gang that operated in northern Mexico; the gang called itself Defenders of Christ, Proceso reported. The group, headed by a Venezuelan who arrived in Mexico as a tourist in 2006, reportedly operated in the northern district of Torreón and the north-eastern district of Nuevo Laredo near the US frontier. The suspects were detained on a road between Nuevo Laredo and Monterrey, after relatives of their victims gave information to police.

Musicians' bodies found in northern Mexico

Four or five of 12 bodies found "so far" in a ditch or well on an estate near Mina in the northern state of Nuevo León were reported on 28 January as belonging to the musical band Kombo Kolombia, whose 18 or 20 members were likely kidnapped by criminals early on 25 January, the state's security affairs spokesman Jorge Domene Zambrano declared. One of the victims was Colombian. Police were investigating the motives for the killing, although media were already speculating this could have been a punishment meted out to the band by one gang or cartel for having performed for a rival gang, Milenio reported. The bodies indicated the victims had been stripped, tortured and shot. Separately, two unidentified "civilians" were killed on 28 January in a shootout between soldiers and gunmen in the district of Lagunillas in Michoacán, west of Mexico City; firing began when troops arrived at the locality of El Correo after residents had called authorities to report the presence of armed men, Milenio reported. Three suspected criminals were killed the same day in the north-central city of Zacatecas when presumed rivals stopped their car and shot them, Milenio reported.

Forty killed in violence around Mexico

At least 40 were reported killed or found dead in violent incidents around Mexico on 24-28 January, including armed criminals, cartel operatives, policemen and eight folk singers who were apparently "tortured" then shot. Six victims were reported as gunned down in the central state of Hidalgo on 25-26 January in two killings police provisionally attributed to the cartel Caballeros Templarios, Proceso reported. The review reported 11 killings in several states on 24-25 January, including of a policeman shot while eating by a food stall and a member of the Sinaloa drug cartel. The gangster was killed by municipal police during response to a car theft in Juárez in the northern state of Chihuahua; he was identified as number 11 in the cartel's hierarchy, Proceso reported on 25 January. The policeman was identified as police chief of the village of Tlajomulco de Zúñiga in the western state of Jalisco. Five at least were reported shot dead on 26 January in or near the districts of Ocampo and Ciudad Juárez in Chihuahua. One was a 19-year-old gunman killed by soldiers during an attempted highway robbery and another a policeman of Ciudad Juárez, Proceso reported. Seven suspected criminals were killed on 25 or 26 January as gunmen in cars traded fire on the road between Magdalena and Tequila in the western state of Jalisco, Proceso reported, citing Notimex. Troops shot dead three presumed gangsters early on 27 January, apparently responding to firing from a house in Fresnillo in the north-central state of Zacatecas; the patrol had arrived after authorities received calls there were armed men in the house. The bodies of eight members of the musical group Kombo Kolombia kidnapped days before were found on 28 January on an estate in the district of Mina in the northern state of Nuevo León; The group, whose members were numbered in reports at 16 or 20, was thought to have been kidnapped on the night of 24-25 January in the nearby district of Hidalgo as it prepared to play a concert, Milenio reported on 28 January.

In days, over 70 reported killed around Mexico

Eight were reported killed or found dead on 15 January in separate incidents in the Mexican states of Coahuila, Estado de México and Chihuahua. Three of these were employees of the Mexican transport ministry reported as missing on 14 January in the northern city of Torreón in Coahuila; they were found dead the next day, apparently "tortured" before being killed, Proceso reported. The review reported the deaths of 41 people around Mexico between 11 and 14 January, including 19 killed in the capital in the 12-14 period. These apparently were distinct from 21 reported killed on 13-14 January in the northern states of Chihuahua and Nuevo León and Estado de México in central Mexico. Five of the dead here were suspected criminals shot by the army in the district of Cadereyta in Nuevo León, Proceso reported on 14 January. On 13 January two were gunned down while driving in the Caribbean island resort of Cozumel, in the state of Quintana Roo; the local governor promised an immediate inquiry and "zero tolerance" for crime on the island, Proceso reported. The same day a mother and her daugher of unspecified age were found shot dead in the district of Tlahualilo in the northern state of Durango, Proceso reported observing that the incident was amid two days of "extreme" violence in that part of the state. Mexico City's mayor reportedly declared on 13 or 14 January that the 19 killings registered in the capital on 12-14 January were unusual but unrelated to drug cartels, and overall security was "assured" in the city. Miguel Ángel Mancera, speaking in the capital, said authorities were investigating and "the instruction I have given very clearly is that there be no impunity...the important point here is that there will be no impunity." Some of the killings occurred in the districts of Iztapalapa and Gustavo A. Madero, where authorities have pursued a disarmament programme intended to reduce killings, Proceso observed.

Over 35 shot dead around Mexico

Over 35 were killed in criminal "executions" and shootouts between gunmen and state forces around Mexico in the 19-21 December period. Of these 14 were reported dead on 19-20 December, including a 22-year-old who died in a shootout with the army on 20 December in the northern state of Chihuahua. Five bodies were found that day by a road in the north-central state of San Luis Potosí, with unspecified messages left beside them from one of the drug cartels, Proceso reported. Authorities in the east-coast state of Veracruz declared that troops and police shot dead on 20 December a man identified as Jesús Daniel Vargas Ramírez - El Popeye - head of The Zetas cartel in the district of Cardel or José Cardel in Veracruz, Proceso reported. The website counted at least 22 victims of criminal and related incidents from late 20 to 21 December. These included: 10 people including five teenagers killed in the northern district of Monterrey late on 20 December, and seven or nine shot dead in and around the western resort of Acapulco, including a journalist and a court official. On 21 December, authorities of the northern state of Nuevo León presented eight detainees identified as members of the Zetas cartel thought involved in the murder of 11 policemen including a police chief in 2011, Proceso reported. The state security spokesman Jorge Domene Zambrano declared that the eight were thought to have kidnapped then executed the police chief of Apodaca and 10 colleagues, in the district of Benito Juárez in April 2011, and were suspects in several murders in 2012. They were detained at an unspecified time in December.

Nineteen or more reported killed in Mexico

At least 19 people were reported shot or found dead around Mexico on 13-14 December in incidents mostly thought related to organized crime and cartels, Proceso reported. These included: two bodies found in the northern city of Coahuila, covered by blankets and with an unspecified message by them signed by Z-40 the head of The Zetas cartel, a policeman shot dead in the north-western district of Otáez in the state of Durango, and three people killed in a shootout in a residential building in the north-central city of Celaya. Nine of the dead were from the north-eastern state of Nuevo León, five of these being shot dead in and at the entrance of a house in the city of Monterrey, Proceso reported. A convict was stabbed to death on 14 December in a prison in the district of Iztapalapa outside Mexico City. This occurred hours before Mexico's Primate Archbishop Cardinal Norberto Rivera was to hold mass at the prison, but apparently did not interrupt preparations for the service held annually in this prison, Milenio reported. A man arrested for killing his wife on 13 December told police he shot her during a row after she would not let him sleep; it was not immediately clear if the shooting had been accidental, Proceso reported on 14 December. Neighbours in the Tláhuac district in Mexico City said the couple were drug users; both apparently had been prosecuted for violent thefts and the victim was on prison leave, the Mexico City chief prosecutor was reported as saying. They argued after returning from a party, when she "turned up the music" and prevented him from going to bed. After her death he fired shots into the air and took a woman and her three children hostage for an unspecified time, before being arrested.

Over 27 killed, found dead in Mexico over weekend

Mexico's investigative review Proceso counted 27 presumed victims of crime, either shot or found dead around Mexico on 18 and 19 November, including a five-year-old killed by accident. These included "at least" ten bodies found in two clandestine graves in Zumpango in the western state of Guerrero; police found the graves after they detained and interrogated on 18 November five presumed members of a gang called Los Rojos, in the district of Chilpancingo in Guerrero. A five-year-old boy was shot and killed while travelling in his father's car, caught in crossfire between police and criminals in the northern city of Gómez Palacio. Separately the state government of Nuevo León in northern Mexico announced on 19 November the arrest of a criminal "cell" of 19 or 24 members associated with The Zetas cartel, led by a man and a woman and including five working policemen and five teenagers. Investigators linked the group to "at least" 16 kidnappings, 12 killings and unspecified acts of extortion. Police confiscated items from them including cash, arms, cars, drugs and "planks for torture," Proceso reported, citing the state security spokesman Jorge Domene Zambrano.

At least 20 killed in Mexico mid-week

"At least" 20 were reported killed or found dead around Mexico on 12-14 November, presumed victims of criminal violence and most likely of organized crime. These included: a bus driver shot before a bus-full of passengers in Acapulco on the western coast, four gunned down outside a brewery in Ciudad Valles near the eastern port of Tampico, five bodies found at the back of an estate car in Ecatepec outside Mexico City and two including a journalist shot dead in Tehuacán, in the eastern state of Puebla, Proceso reported on 13 and 14 November. The journalist was shot while driving from an assignment; the other victim was a former policewoman, CNN reported. In the north-eastern state of Nuevo León, police arrested on 10 November, 22 suspects identified as members of the Gulf Cartel and working in a team led by a 19-year-old, Proceso reported on 14 November. The "cell," including three members aged 15-17, was thought involved in drug trafficking, kidnapping and murders in the district of China where the suspects were arrested, Nuevo León's security spokesman Jorge Domene Zambrano said. Authorities revealed on 13 November the arrests of three other presumed members of cartels, Proceso reported. These were identified as Mario Arturo Zurita, head of The Zetas in the northern district of Saltillo arrested on 12 November, and two members of the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación, detained on 9 November in the eastern port of Veracruz. Separately the mayor of El Bosque in the southern state of Chiapas and two municipal offficials were shot and injured in an ambush, while driving to nearby Simojovel on 13 November, Proceso reported.

Eight killed around Mexico, drug cash found

"At least" eight people were reported to have been killed or found dead on 7 November in different parts of Mexico, including one in the form of a severed head found on a road outside Ríoverde in north-central Mexico. Others included suspected criminals killed in shootouts with the police, Proceso reported. Criminals were also reported that day to have kidnapped the mother of a regional legislator in western Mexico. Sandra Luz Ríos Ríos was abducted from her bakery in a village in the Benito Juárez district of the state of Guerrero, Proceso reported. Her son Ricardo Ángel Barrientos Ríos was elected last July to the state parliament of Guerrero for the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party; he was mayor of Benito Juárez in 2009-12. Guerrero has in past months witnessed regular violence as cartels fight to control its territory. In the northern state of Nuevo León, authorities presented to the press on 7 November four presumed members of the Gulf Cartel likely involved in murders and kidnappings, detained on a state highway on 22 October, Proceso reported. They were said to have confessed to their roles in 13 killings including of policemen, and 16 kidnappings in southern Nuevo León. Separately the explosion of a house for a gas leak in the north-western city of Tijuana led police to find there about 1.8 million USD thought to belong to the Sinaloa Cartel, Proceso reported on 7 November. Five children or teenagers were injured by the explosion as was a woman identified as niece of the trafficker and cartel member Raydel López Uriarte, jailed in 2010. In Coatzacoalcos in the eastern state of Veracruz the army arrested a "criminal cell," confiscating from them items including six cars, 500 doses of cocaine, cash worth about 20,000 USD and arms including a machine gun and a rocket launcher, Proceso reported.

Prison staff jailed in Mexico after inmates' flight

Authorities jailed nine former employees of the Piedras Negras prison in northern Mexico after they were charged with aiding a mass flight of prisoners on 17 September, Proceso reported on 27 October. Over 130 prisoners, mostly presumed members of The Zetas drug cartel, reportedly either walked out of the prison that day or fled through a hole made in the carpentry workshop. Troops and police have caught some of them and killed others, but most seemed to be free and likely involved in numerous criminal incidents in northern Mexico in recent weeks. The Coahuila state prosecutor's office stated it might question other prison staff. Two men were separately shot dead in the northern state of Chihuahua on 28 October, one in the city of Chihuahua, the other in Meoqui further south, Proceso reported.

Mexican troops kill, detain suspected gangsters

Six were killed in drug-related violence in three states of Mexico on 26 October, while troops detained a "cell" from The Zetas cartel thought involved in at least 43 killings over a year. Two of the dead were suspected members of The Zetas cartel, shot by troops in the northern city of Monterrey. They were identified as a local boss dubbed El Tío and a presumed associate dubbed El Pollo (Chicken), and were shot as they opened fire when troops told them get out of their car, Proceso reported. Another "suspected criminal" was shot dead by soldiers in Xalapa, in the eastern state of Veracruz; troops also detained four presumed kidnappers and released a man held by them in José Azueta in Veracruz. Police separately presented on 26 October four detainees and suspected members of The Zetas including their head in the northern districts of Guadalupe and Benito Juárez, identified as Miguel Ángel Domínguez Montaño or Micky. He confessed he had taken part in seven executions and ordered dozens more. The four were arrested on 6 October while driving in Guadalupe, Proceso reported. The state prosecutor's office was reported to have ascertained in this time that the four had kidnapped and killed 35 presumed traffickers working with rival gangs, and killed eight kidnap victims for whom ransom had not been paid or who recognized their captors.